Help! All bookmarks gone after using Opera Link!

Hi,

I just booted up my old notebook that I haven't been using for a few month. Opera has been installed on both my desktop computer and my notebook for many years now and has always been my standard browser, and I have been using Opera Link to synchronize my bookmarks and other data between both computers without any problems for a long time now. On my desktop, I'm using Windows 7 x64, and my notebook has Windows XP installed (x32 I think).

So, after booting up the notebook, the first thing I did was updating Opera to the lasted version via auto update. When I opened up my bookmarks folder, I was pretty surprised that it was empty, except for maybe four or five bookmarks I added the last time I used my notebook. Even if Opera Link would have been unable to receive my newest bookmarks from the server, there should at least have been hundreds of old bookmarks in there. At that point, I did not worry much about this, because I had all my bookmarks on my desktop computer and I thought they might have been lost due to the Opera update on the notebook.

But when I came home a few hours ago and started up Opera on my desktop computer, I was shocked to find out that Opera Link had deleted all my bookmarks on my desktop, too (and added the four or five bookmarks from my notebook)! Is there a way for me to restore those bookmarks? My bookmark folder contained hundreds of links I collected over the past ~10 years, which are all gone now! I might have a backup somewhere, but that one would be at least half a year old and be missing a lot of recent bookmarks. I didn't back up my bookmarks any more that often after discovering Opera Link, I guess that was a mistake... I don't understand why Opera Link would delete all my local bookmarks, just because it's database on the server is empty (at least I guess that is what has happened here). And I also don't understand why it's database would be empty in the first place, since my desktop computer is always connected to Opera Link, so the database should always be up-to-date - unless it emptied itself, because there were no bookmarks on my notebook.

Might there be some kind of backup file in the Opera folder where I could still find my bookmarks? Or could they still be saved on the Opera Link server? Or anything else I can do to restore them? I might have to add that I had to restart Opera on my desktop due to a crash about an hour ago, but I'm pretty sure that my bookmarks have been gone even before that, because now I only have those most recent bookmarks from my notebook I mentioned earlier. Thanks in advance for any help with this!

edit: I just found out that on the other hard drive in my desktop computer, on which my old system (Windows XP) is still installed, there is a bookmark file that's about a month old. It seems that I used Opera when I had to start up my old Win XP installation about a month ago, and apparently I was logged in to Opera Link back then. I imported this file and have most of my bookmarks back now, but there are still many recent bookmarks missing which I wish I could get back. Also, when I open up my Opera Link Page, it still does not show all the bookmarks I imported just now. I tried logging out, restarting Opera, nothing works, Opera Link does not update my data, although it says that it's "running fine". I remember opening that page when I used Opera Link for the first time, and finding all my bookmarks there.

Your first post, so welcome to the Opera forums!

Sorry about the loss, but glad you found a pretty recent version and were able to retrieve most of your bookmarks. Finding 119 of the last 120 months must have been quite a relief!

This kind of problem (bookmarks loss in Opera Link) has been reported several times in the forums, and I guess the main "lesson" (besides making backups) is to NOT think of Opera Link as a backup system or a substitute for a backup system, even though I think it's pretty understandable how it might almost automatically be viewed that way.

I haven't been around the forums for a few months, so I don't know if there have been any more recent developments or news, but you might find this thread from about 6 months ago informative. It explains at least one way that Opera Link could unintentionally backfire as a "backup" system. I don't know if the proposed functionality change from Pause to a true Stop discussed there has been implemented yet. But my impression from the other threads I've read is that it isn't at all clear what may have happened in many other cases.

You'll see my reasons for not using Opera Link stated in the thread, but I really don't have the need for it that some do, and I can easily see its many advantages for many people. If I ever need to start using it, I would need to be a lot better about keeping regular backups. As it is, I rarely get around to making a full backup of my Opera profile. Usually I just make a copy of my bookmarks.adr whenever I think of it (and occasionally my operaprefs.ini, global_history.dat, download.dat files) and leave the copy right there in my Opera profile folder (currently at 18 copies of my bookmarks ). Won't help if my HDD goes down, but if Opera loses or corrupts my bookmarks I'll have something pretty recent.

If you're not able to find any copy of your bookmarks more recent than a month ago, you might be able to reconstruct most of the recent bookmarks by just scrolling through your browsing history (Ctrl+H) and re-bookmarking the sites you're reminded of when you see them in the history. (...Unless you have Opera set to erase the browsing history upon exit or some such.)